<p>here are my stats nearing the end of junior year</p>
<p>GPA (Unweighted) 3.88
SAT I: 2260 (MATH 800 CRITICAL READING 750 WRITIING 710)
SAT II: (NOT YET TAKEN) projected Chem 760-800 Math II 800
AP (NOT YET TAKEN) projected Chem 5 US Hist 5 Psych 4/5
CLASS RANK: 3/234 (parochial high school)</p>
<p>WORK EXPERIENCE:
Pathmark (Corporately owned grocery store)
Position: Front End Manager
Responsibilities: Management of personnel, loss prevention (security), bookkeeping, a lot of paper work as well as instituting disciplinary action when company standards are not upheld
Employed for: one and a half years
Hours/week: 30</p>
<p>Family income: single parent family (one mother two children), total income less than 50K</p>
<p>Senior year courses: 4 AP(English, Euro Hist, Calc, Physics) 1 HON(French IV)
also Religion IV(a mandatory course at the school)</p>
<p>my academics are pretty solid, but i'm not quite sure what i should dedicate my time to this upcoming summer. also, i'm curious as to whether or not higher level colleges will consider that instead of normal extracurricular activities I had to work (that 30 hrs/wk is not exaggerated!) and not penalize me for that when considering me for admission. What colleges should i be looking in to, reaches, where i'm a lock, etc. (Idealistically I'd like to apply to either Penn or Brown, but at this point i think my non-academic record is too weak, any input is much appreciated)</p>
<p>realistically then, the three I've been looking at are Penn, Johns Hopkins , and Brown. I live in South Jersey, that may or may not affect my chances at Penn, but what are my chances at each of the three. If I'm lacking in any area, is there anything i can do this summer to bolster my resume</p>
<p>
[quote]
if i tried early admission to penn would i get in?
[/quote]
</p>
<p>I dont care what people say, but no one can give you a clear answer to that. Penn is a VERY competitive school and it gets more competitive every year. 99.9% of people are not definite's to get into Penn.</p>
<p>What you lack is any clear "hook", something that makes your application stand out from every other kid with sky-high test scores from New Jersey (Intel Semi-finalist, perfect AMC, URM). You do work alot of hours and are from a single parent home but neither of those are hooks. Hooks are hard to aquire in a summer. However, you have a chance at Upenn but it is far from certain.</p>
<p>i spoke with my guidance counselor and he said that there is virtually no pattern of acceptance at Penn. he reasoned that since there are so many qualified applicants, the determining factor in each acceptance is unable to be explained in a single set of guidelines, scores, ECs, etc. It sounds true, So if Penn is a toss up, how do my chances at Hopkins and Brown look?</p>
<p>another question, Does the fact that i'm holding a management position in my job help in any way. I'm aware that admissions officers look for "leadership roles" in ECs</p>
<p>
[quote]
i spoke with my guidance counselor and he said that there is virtually no pattern of acceptance at Penn. he reasoned that since there are so many qualified applicants, the determining factor in each acceptance is unable to be explained in a single set of guidelines, scores, ECs, etc. It sounds true, So if Penn is a toss up, how do my chances at Hopkins and Brown look?
[/quote]
</p>
<p>The same thing applies to Brown, and to Hopkins to a lesser extent.</p>